


He stood you up again

by Christmasrose66



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 04:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14128542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Christmasrose66/pseuds/Christmasrose66
Summary: written after watching Plus One and The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat





	He stood you up again

**Author's Note:**

> written after watching Plus One and The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat

"He stood you up again?" Reggie's voice inside her head. This whole business with Reggie was playing on her mind. How could he possibly know so much about them? Reggie was crazy, right? He was crazy. She was the sane one, going round in circles, in which Mulder stood her up, again and again. Had Reggie really learnt so much about them by listening to their phone conversations, at the NSA? Did they give so much away about themselves, over that most unsecure medium, the telephone?

"Nothing hurts like the truth" Little Judy's voice inside her head. She was old, past her prime. Of course, Mulder had reassured her that it wasn't true, he would hold back the tide for her, like King Canute. He could make her feel young, and she could do the same for him. There was a comfort in their long standing familiarity with each other, a shorthand for so much that had passed between them. Just knowing that he was there was enough. A real, tangible, messy, frustrating presence. 

So, yes, Mulder had stood her up again. Subconsciously perhaps, she had been aware of the possibility. She hadn't gone out of her way to get dressed up, she was neatly dressed, but she hadn't gone all out to impress, she didn't think he would notice if she turned up wearing a plastic bag. Maybe that was a little unkind, but sometimes he really pissed her off. Then she remembered the look in his eye, when he stared straight at her, that wry smile curling his lips. "You still got it going on" he had said, and she knew he meant it. A typical Mulder compliment, in got her right in the guts, honesty disguised as a casual joke. Yes, they were going round in circles, but these days, the circles were closer, and coincided more often, a Venn diagram of affection.

There was still something about this whole Reggie business that nagged at the corners of her mind. He had overheard their phone conversations, and inserted himself into the daily reality of their lives. So far, so crazy, but how could he know about their childhood memories? He must have talked to other people they worked with, that was the rational explanation. Come to think of it, that would explain how Skinner knew Reggie. Had someone at the NSA been investigating their backgrounds? She was starting to feel as paranoid as Mulder. Who was the crazy one now?

The Chinese takeaway was concealing in the bag, becoming less and less apertising, the more she thought about it. She drove to her city centre appartment, as quickly as she could, and ate alone, in her pristine kitchen. Reggie's account of events had been fabricated, a tale stretched across the bones of truth. His reality was not her reality, but who was to say that she was any less crazy? An objective observer of Scully's life might find their credulity tested. Mulder was a constant thread through it all, as she was a constant thread through his life, the two of them could not be untangled. She had tried, and realised the impossibility of it, there were always at least two realities to every story.


End file.
